Makunouchi Ippo/History/First Part
Early Days After being bullied by Umezawa Masahiko, Takemura and Matsuda, Ippo was saved by novice boxer,Takamura Mamoru, who drives the trio away. An unconscious Ippo is then taken to the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, where he is nursed back to health by Takamura. Before letting Ippo go, Takamura gave him the opportunity to punch a heavyweight bag with a drawing of Umezawa's face on it. After following Takamura's instructions, Ippo successfully performed a straight on the sandbag. Ippo's power is such, that the skin on his hand is peeled after hitting the sandbag. While bandaging Ippo's hand, Takamura noticed his well-built body and encourages him to defend himself from the gang. Before leaving, Takamura gives him a video compilation of Mike Tyson's knockouts. Inspired by the videos, Ippo decided to become a professional boxer and requests Takamura's help in doing so. Thinking it is impossible for someone like Ippo to become a professional, Takamura told him that he will only agree to train him if he catches ten leaves falling from a tree midair with his jabs within a week. With much struggle, Ippo successfully catches ten leaves on the promised day with one hand, surprising Takamura and earning his acceptance. Believing Ippo to not be boxing material, Kamogawa Genji has him spar against prodigy out boxer Miyata Ichirou, in order to see whether he can be accepted or not. Terrified at the idea of an actual fight, Ippo followed the advice of Takamura, who served as his second in the match. Utilising everything he had learned from Takamura, Ippo managed to get to the third round, surprising all witnesses. However, he fell into a trap and was caught by Miyata's counter. Despite losing the spar by knockout, Ippo's great determination earned him Kamogawa's respect and acceptance. Realising Ippo's potential, Kamogawa decided to have him fight Miyata again, to see how much they can improve in three months. In order to face the counter that defeated him, Ippo learned how to perform an uppercut, and worked on a strategy to lure Miyata in. However, after a conversation with Miyata about what motivated him to fight, Ippo decided that he does not want to run away from the counter. After convincing Kamogawa, he goes through intensive training in order to face the counter head-on. Ippo faces Miyata, who, unlike before, became desperate after realising just how much Ippo had evolved in three months. With both fighters scoring multiple downs, and Ippo's strategy against the counter working as planned, they get to the fourth round. In this final round, Ippo threw his newly acquired uppercut in an attempt to end the fight, but seemingly missed. It is this uppercut that causes Miyata to go down and unable to get up, making Ippo the winner. Fujii Minoru reveals, that Ippo's uppercut, indeed landed by barely a centimeter, making Miyata lose control of his legs, despite still being conscious. The result of the second spar, caused Miyata to leave the gym in order to be able to face Ippo as a professional in the future. Before parting ways, they each promised to make it to the East Japan Rookie King Tournament and settle the score. However, with Miyata's departure, Ippo loses a goal to fight for and no longer showed his characteristic enthusiasm. In an attempt to solve this problem, Kamogawa ordered him to follow Takamura's training routine, with hopes of him realising just how difficult a boxer's life really is. Kamogawa's attempts prove to be successful, as Ippo understood by watching Takamura going through his training schedule with such energy despite suffering the effects of his weight management. After regaining his motivation, Ippo applied for a professional boxing licence. Despite easily passing the written test, Ippo was extremely nervous before the test fight. However, his opponent's level of skill, proved to be much inferior to Miyata's, which made it easy for Ippo to defeat him. Also applying for a licence there, another newcomer, Mashiba Ryou, threatened Ippo by advising him to switch weight classes, as they would face each other in the tournament otherwise. Ippo vowed that he will not, as he has a promise to fulfil with Miyata. After Umezawa takes Ippo's boxing license, Ippo defends himself and takes it back, earning the bullies respect. After Ippo received his boxer's license, Kamogawa announced that his opponent for his pro debut will be Oda Yusuke. When the match begins, Ippo has the advantage until in round two, when Oda grazed Ippo near the eye and causes a cut to appear. This caused the Kourakuen Hall doctor to almost stop the match. The third round, Oda goes straight for the cut, trying to make it bleed again, Ippo switched to Southpaw and eventually knocks out Oda with a series of jabs, thus winning the fight. As a celebration, Kamogawa left money, which Ippo and the others used to celebrate at the Sugar Ray. Ippo's second match is scheduled and his opponent's name is Fujiwara Yoshio. When the match begins, in round one, Fujiwara intentionally headbutted Ippo. After the next headbutt, Ippo noticed that Fujiwara was doing it on purpose. Fujiwara then began to headbutt Ippo again, but the latter knew it was coming and threw an uppercut that knocks out Fujiwara, making Ippo the winner. After school, Umezawa introduces Ippo to a group of delinquents, Umezawa then started calling Ippo his friend. Rookie King Tournament Ippo celebrated his first year at the gym at the Chuuka Soba. At the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, Yagi and Kamogawa announced the line up for the Rookie King Tournament. Ippo's first opponent would be Jason Ozuma. After hearing about Ozuma's devastating right hook, Ippo trained to dodge hooks by having Takamura throw hooks for him to dodge and Ippo using hanging bars to act as a punch to dodge. At the weigh-in, they met for the first time, to Ippo's surprise, Ozuma was a kind man. The match begins, and in the first round, both Ippo and Ozuma were on the same pace, dodging each others punches, however Ippo was hit by one of Ozuma's hooks and went down, he got up in eight seconds. In the second round, Ippo went down due to a hook. After exchanging punches, Ozuma threw a large hook, Ippo dodges and threw a body blow, knocking Ozuma down. After getting back up, Ozuma throws multiple punches to Ippo, winning the exchange. Ippo, running out of options near the rope, saw an opening as Ozuma throws a hook, Ippo dodged and threw an uppercut and a combo that knocked out Ozuma, winning the match. After school, Ippo watches Miyata's match against Takada Teruhiko. There, he also saw a girl who's looking for a seat and dropped her ticket in front of him. After Miyata's win, Ippo was surprised with how much Miyata has gotten better since their spar. Later, Ippo went to Yamanaka Bakery and saw the same girl who he saw during Miyata's match, working at the bakery. At Kamogawa Boxing Gym, Fujii arrived with a tape of Ippo's next opponent, Kobashi Kenta. As Ippo watched the tape, he notices Kobashi clinches and has weak jabs. He then watched a tape of Hayami Ryuuichi, who uses his Shotgun technique to batter his opponent in punches. Later, Ippo got an invitation to go to a training camp from Takamura, after accepting, he arrived at the training camp. There, he did multiple training exercises, running in the sand, shadowboxing, sparring, dodging tennis balls. After the training camp, at the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, it is revealed that Ippo's match against Kobashi is before Takamura's match. As Ippo leaves the gym, he noticed someone staring through the window. The person ran and dropped his journal, Ippo picked it up and caught up to him, immediately he found out it is Kobashi. When he finds out Kobashi is observing, he started watching videos of Kobashi's matches. The match commences, in the first three rounds, Ippo had trouble with Kobashi's left arm sticking out. Ippo was unable to hit him and getting exhausted, as Kobashi kept clinching. In the fourth and last round, Kobashi began to throw more punches than usual, hoping for a KO win, Ippo saw an opening and threw a clean hit to the face that downed Kobashi. As Kobashi was unable to stand, Ippo won the match. Ippo then watched Takamura's match against Yajima Yoshiaki. When Takamura went down, Ippo and the others cheers helped Takamura stand up. At school during a teacher's conference, Ippo stated to his teacher that he doesn't want to go to college, instead wants to continue boxing. While outside, Ippo met Kobashi, who stated that he couldn't find anyway of winning against Hayami or his shotgun. At the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, Kamogawa stated that Hayami's shotgun must tire himself out, that is the moment Ippo should strike. Ippo began defensive training in order to dodge Hayami's shotgun. At the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, Miyata stated to Ippo he will wait for him at the finals. Ippo noticed that Hayami will always do an uppercut at the end of the barrage, so he stated that he wants to learn how to counterattack the upper. Ippo then began counter training with Aoki. The match commenced, in the first round, Ippo started to dodge Hayami's punches perfectly, after getting hit by a barrage of punches, Ippo got ready to counter the expected left uppercut, but Hayami did not throw it, much to everyone's surprise. Hayami thrrew a barrage of punches at close range, Ippo goes down, thinking that there's no hope. After getting back up, and gaining his fighting spirit back, Ippo began to hit Hayami better than he did before. Ippo saw a chance for the uppercut counter punch, however, they both hit each other, with Hayami's legs damaged. Ippo began gaining his speed and overpowered Hayami with punches, eventually Hayami went down on the first round, with Ippo declared as the winner. After watching the match between Miyata and Masiba, Ippo received a message from Miyata, "Forgive me.". Ippo, frustrated, punches a punching bag at the gym until he is stopped by Takamura who discovered his bloodied fist. After looking at the wounds on Ippo's fist, Kamogawa suggested he must not use his fist for two weeks, he then began speed training. Ippo went to the Yamanaka Bakery and saw Kumi, there, Ippo found out that Ryou is Kumi's brother. Then, at the gym, Fujii explained the Mashiba family background to Ippo and everyone else. Kamogawa stated that he found Mashiba's weakness, his left guard is down when he uses the Hitman style, however, Ippo has to go head-on. After Kamogawa noticed Ippo's fist is healed, he let Aoki and Kimura spar with Ippo. The match commenced, in the first round, Ippo had trouble with the Flicker Jab's range at first, but adapted. In round two, Ippo was on the offensive, however, he hit Mashiba's elbow with his Elbow Block three times. Due to Ippo's punching power, Mashiba's left arm fell, due to his elbow being bruised. Before round three began, Kamogawa noticed Ippo's right hand is bleeding through the glove, Kamogawa stated to only use his right hand as the finishing blow. In the third round, after receiving multiple punches, Mashiba forced his left arm into hitman style position. Ippo, thinking it's a bluff, got hit multiple times and went down. After noticing Mashiba's legs are shaking, Ippo gets up. Ippo began throwing punches, Mashiba clinched, Ippo then began hitting Mashiba while clinched. Once he broke out, Ippo then threw combos to Mashiba until he went down. As Mashiba is unable to get up and Ippo is the winner. Ippo then received the most talented rookie award. All Japan Rookie King Tournament Two weeks after the match and after school, Ippo met Umezawa and gang, who saw the match. After getting asked by the gang, Ippo stated that he had to withdraw from the All Japan Rookie King Tournament. Ippo went to the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, there, he saw Sendou Takeshi, the West Japan Rookie King, who told him not to withdraw. When Sendou departs for Osaka, he stated that he will be waiting there, resulting in Ippo wanting to fight him. Ippo then went to Yamaguchi Tomoko, who stated that he can fight. During a spar two days before the match, Ippo noticed he's automatically stopping his right, to not break his fist. To prevent this, Yamaguchi injected pain killers to his right hand. The match commenced, in the first round, Ippo struggled against Sendou's intense pressure, but finnally overcame it as they both slugged it out. In round two and three, Sendou used many Smashes and was an all-around intense slug fight. Before the fourth round began, Sendou turned out to be unconscious in his corner, despite still sitting upright looking ready to continue, resulting in Ippo winning. Class A Tournament Ippo attended the graduation ceremony as he walks on stage to receive his diploma, everyone applauded him for his victory in being the All-Japan Rookie King. On his way home, he walked with Umezawa, who tried to apologise for what he did in the past, but couldn't after Ippo stated he will call him when his next match is announced. Ippo then encountered Miyata, who had also graduated. Miyata informed Ippo that he is leaving Japan for a while since Ippo had widen the gap between them by becoming the All-Japan Rookie King and will return when he closes that gap. At the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, a group of newcomers appeared, after roadwork, only one stuck with the team, Naomichi Yamada, who was a fan of Ippo. Ippo went to Kourakuen Hall to watch Takamura, Kimura and Aoki's matches, there, he met the JBC Featherweight champion Date Eiji, who hinted that in the future they may face each other since Ippo is already ranked number 10 upon winning the Rookie King Tournament. Ippo's fist was healed and three days later, Ippo went to Nakadai Boxing Gym to spar with Date. During the spar in the first round, Ippo noticed the overwhelming pressure from the champion, as he was hit multiple times. In the second round, Date used his Corkscrew Blow at Ippo's heart, which downed Ippo as he was unable to lift his guard up for the follow-up. The two then continued their spar until the third round. At the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, the Nakadai Boxing Gym sent a request for Ippo to fight Okita Keigo, who is ranked fifth. The match commenced and in the first round, Okita used many corkscrew blows and feints which gave Ippo trouble, but Ippo defeated him in the first round after countering a corkscrew blow. Ippo found out about Miyata's latest match against Rusak Paddy resulting in a draw. Ippo saw Alexander Volg Zangief on TV, who wants to take Date's belt. Ippo went with Yamada for his pro test, there he cheered up Yamada and saw him win his pro test. At the gym, Kamogawa and Yagi announced that the Class A Tournament is beginning. With Ippo fighting 2nd rank Saeki Takuma, Takamura then announced that the whole crew will go to a training camp. The next day at the gym, Yagi announced to Ippo, that his mother was hospitalised after collapsing from overwork. Ippo rushed to the hospital, there he noticed his mother has done everything at work alone ever since he started boxing, he then began working at the fishing boat. Fujii tried to get Ippo back into boxing, but he refused. Then one day, Umezawa visited Ippo and asked Ippo to let him take over so Ippo could continue boxing. As he is able to box again, Ippo waited at the gym as the group returned from the training camp. Ippo sparred with Takamura which ended in Ippo crying tears of joy that he's back. After training with Kamogawa, Ippo explains his battle strategy against Saeki which is to attack to stop the clockwise motion he does with body blows. Having second thoughts about his strategy, he asks Kimura what he would do against infighters as an out-boxer. Ippo then decides to work on his footwork to outpace Saeki. Ippo meets his mother in the hospital after recovering, there, he receives new boxing trunks made by his mother and designed by Umezawa, and boxing shoes by Umezawa. Back at his house Ippo states to Umezawa he will win against Saeki. At the day of the match, Ippo meets Saeki at the weigh-in, where the latter wants Ippo to give him everything he has at the match. The match then begins, Saeki proved to be a difficult opponent at first since Ippo had difficulty catching him, even at close range. Saeki grew to be a major problem when he cornered Ippo and then used his flicker jabs to swell Ippo's right eye intentionally. Saeki controlled most of the match by staying in Ippo's blind spot and staying out of his line of sight using his speed. After Ippo managed to lean against Saeki by coincidence, he started to get the timing and Saeki's rhythm down, allowing Ippo to punch accurately within his blind spot and knock Saeki out of it. In one final rush, taking advantage of his slowed reactions due to the fear of feeling Ippo's punch, Saeki is knocked out cold. With Ippo as the winner, he can progress into the next round of the Class A tournament. While recovering, Saeki asks Ippo how he found him, which Ippo replies that his rhythm was so precise that he knew where Saeki would go next. Umezawa then asked how Ippo didn't fall, Ippo states that if he fell, he wouldn't be able to advertise the store. Ippo then watches the match, Suzuki vs. Volg. After witnessing Volg's White Fang, he realises that his next opponent will be tough. Ippo then finds out that Yamada is moving out in two days, Takamura then plans to throw a traditional Kamogawa gym farewell party. When the farewell party begins, Ippo is his last opponent, he uses a liver blow on Yamada that makes him throw up, after the farewell party, Ippo sees Yamada off. For Aoki and Kimura's match in the semi-finals, Ippo studied their opponents and then mimicked their fighting styles while sparing with Aoki and Kimura. He then watches their fights, after they both lose, Ippo is disappointed that they lost after training so hard, he is then told by Takamura that is what boxing is, a cruel world. At the gym, after Kamogawa got back from a heated meeting with Ramuda, he has Ippo training to use the Gazelle Punch by doing 200 squats in a pool. After a week, Ippo successfully does the Gazelle Punch. Ippo is told by Kamogawa that he will launch the Gazelle Punch when Volg runs out of breath from continuous punches. Ippo then does endurance training with Kamogawa so he's not the one who runs out of breath first. After watching Date's title defence match, Ippo meets Volg and has a conversation about Russia's winter and why he boxes. The day of the match, the fight began. The match was mostly an in-fight brawl, Ippo used the Gazelle Punch multiple times. It was a battle of endurance, before the final blow, Volg runs out of stamina allowing Ippo to deliver his punches with little resistance. In the final round, Ippo and Volg enter a close range high hitting in-fight where they are forced to battle nonstop without breathing. After Ippo manages to avoid Volg's trademark White Fang, Volg ran out of air, giving Ippo the chance to Gazelle Punch Volg's face for the victory, ending the match at round 5, 1 minute, 21 seconds. With Ippo the winner, he's the Class A Tournament winner and the most talented boxer prize holder. JBC Featherweight Champion - Date Eiji After waking up in the hospital, he finds Kumi working there and Ippo finds out that Mashiba has also won the Class A tournament. Ippo goes to his celebration party where Takamura, Kimura and Aoki gathered four girls from the hospital to party with them. The group then played a game of bowling, with the first winner getting to pick first which girl they want to go out with, at the end of the game, Ippo goes out with Kumi. After escorting her home, he to her house, they have a short conversation before Ippo gets scared of Mashiba and leaves. When Ippo returns to the gym, Kamogawa announces that the Champion Carnival has been scheduled with Ippo fighting the current JBC featherweight champion, Date Eiji. Ippo, having trouble finding an plan against Date, goes to Takamura's house to find magazines to help him, but comes to a conclusion that he has no plan and will throw everything he learned at him as the challenger. Ippo then goes with Takamura for his match against Tamaki Atsushi, there he meets Date who shocks Ippo when he tells him his punches are light. After Takamura's match, the former says to Ippo that Date's punches are heavy because of people's feelings are connected to his fists. After finding out Mashiba is a Junior lightweight champion now, Ippo gets a call from Kumi asking him to come over for the celebration party. At the Kamogawa gym, Ippo is requested to spar for the press with a Philippines Junior Featherweight 4th seed boxer. After defeating the boxer, he spars with Kimura with a strategy to defeat Date. Both fighters enter the ring and the match begins and for the first few rounds he succeeded in pushing the champion to his limits. However, when Date began using the high-level Neck Spin to negate most of the power behind Ippo's punches, Ippo becomes disoriented. Date gradually returns to his style of fighting from his younger days. He delivers a powerful Heart Break Shot that stuns Ippo, then prepares to deliver the finishing blow. But the referee stops the match because Kamogawa had already thrown in the towel. With this, Ippo loses the match. The Road Back After waking up, he finds out that Date relinquished the belt and Sendou and Volg are going to have a match for it. After being told to take a break from boxing for three months, seeing Kourakuen Hall during a date with Kumi, and watching a replay of his match, he starts feeling the effects of losing. Ippo goes to Osaka where he meets Miyata, who just came back to Japan. The two watch Sendou and Volg fight for the JBC featherweight belt, which ended in a controversial win for Sendou. After the fight, Ippo finds out from Fujii, that the Otowa Boxing Gym is cutting ties with Volg. who is leaving Japan that evening. Ippo takes a taxi to the airport where Volg is leaving. There, Volg gives Ippo his old boxing gloves and says his last Japanese word, "Sayonara", leaving Ippo in tears as he sees Volg walking away. After watching Miyata fight against Li Chon Pir, Ippo meets Date, who's about to fight the 5th rank WBA American boxer, he tells Ippo to not idle or he will be forgotten. Ippo goes to the gym and finds out that him, Aoki and Kimura have matches coming up. With Ippo only knowing the name of his opponent, Ponchai Chuwatana and record, he doesn't know what he looks like or what his fighting style is. Kamogawa has Ippo training more on defence than offence. During training, Kamogawa collapses and is sent to the hospital. At the hospital, Kamogawa says the goal for his match is to hit before getting hit. Ippo begins watching tapes of Mike Tyson and notes how he bobs his head for defence. Kamogawa recovers from the hospital and Ippo goes to the weigh-in, where he meets Ponchai. The time for the match arrives and the match begins. After witnessing Ponchai aggressive punching, Ippo begins hitting back, he then realises Ponchai can use the neck spin like Date. After the first round, Ippo declares to Kamogawa that he will win in the second round. In the second round, Ippo starts to land small punches while swaying left and right, before speeding up and finishing Ponchai off with his new finishing move, the "Dempsey Roll". As Ponchai can't get up, Ippo wins the match. When Ippo has his mic interview, champion Sendou walks over to the side of the ring and receives the mic. He requests a rematch against Ippo as the champion, Ippo then accepts the request. Lallapallooza The continuation of the unfinished match between the hard punchers of East and West. Ippo and Sendou had been looking forward to a match since the All Japan Rookie Championship was unfinished in their minds. To prepare for the match they both strengthened their weaknesses through new training methods, Sendou improving his lower body and Ippo his upper body. This match is considered to be one of the most intense since both fighters had roughly the same amount of punching power resulting in numerous slug fests and a footstomp from the audience that shook the hall. Ippo originally had problems since he had a smaller body, meaning he had a little bit less muscle and was going to lose unless he started to connect more punches than Sendou did. But with encouragement from his friends and remembering his training he managed to continue his match against Sendou. The match turned into a mix up, where both fighters drew out the others' potential and helped each other grow stronger. With one final showdown between their signature finishers, Ippo managed to pull through and finish Sendou off by inventing a combo of his 3 strongest techniques to take the belt and title. Sendou then personally congratulated Ippo. First Step Sanada Kazuki is the former Japan junior featherweight champion moved up a weight class in order to challenge Ippo. With Hama Dankichi in his corner, he showcased a double uppercut nicknamed the "Hien" and the "Tsubame Gaeshi". He was able to remain standing for a moment after receiving the full Dempsey roll thanks to working the whole match on slowing Ippo down, but ultimately fell to the damage caused by it. Proof of Power Hammer Nao is a former member of the Kamogawa Gym and former kouhai of Ippo, he dropped down from Junior Welterweight in order to get the chance to fight Ippo. Ippo tried to end the fight as quickly as possible so that Nao would not receive much damage, but Nao was able to last until the 2nd round through a series of subtly executed fouls and even landed his signature solar plexus shot. However, Ippo's strength and experience still proved too much to Nao, causing the latter to suffer a loss. Battle of Hawks Yi Yon Su is the first opponent that Ippo has defeated in the first round as the champion. Ippo promised to win this match in the first round so long as Takamura won the junior middleweight title match against Bryan Hawk later that night. He knocks Yonsu out with the Dempsey Roll and afterwards gets scolded by Kamogawa for taking such a big risk so early in the fight. Submarine Wars Shimabukuro Iwao is the only fighter Ippo has ever fought that was shorter (and arguably more powerful) than him. This was fight was also for the right to be called Japan's greatest infighter. In this fight Ippo uses a alot more boxing skill than usual, starting off the fight with heavy jabs and using light punches in the end to set up his strong punch which was then followed by the Dempsey roll. Iwao is the first fighter to break the dempsey roll with punches choosing to slug it out, it is successful the first time, but the Second one finishes the fight. Dragon Slayer Sawamura Ryuuhei presented Ippo with his greatest challenge up to this point because he possessed an almost genius like sense for counterpunching. Combine that with a rugged toughness as well as a heavy jab and powerful straight right, Ippo is pushed very hard in this fight and reveals an evolved form of the Dempsey Roll, one with a sudden stop, to make the attack less predictable and more effective. It became an excellent way to fake out the counter-boxer, even though it took a large toll on Ippo's body. It should be noted that Sawamura had Ippo in serious trouble in the 4th round but instead of finishing it then he chose to do more damage to Ippo and that in turn back fired. For within the 7th Round, Ippo knocks out Sawamura Ryuuhei with the evolved Dempsey Roll causing serious and massive damage to Sawamura.